Interesting, curious what they think of RLC who has been invisible the last 2 games. I agree that Musah should contribute more to the attack but the whole midfield has been lacking.
Yeah... Reijnders' form has also dropped significantly since the start of the season. As such and somewhat surprisingly, I think Musah might be the best CM they have on the roster. Obviously he still has aspects of his game that he needs to improve upon but I am so content w/ how he is progressing so early in his career at Milan.
Can't disagree with their assessment of Musah (he is oh so close, just needs to take that next step), but their take on Reijnders is baffling to me. He has been wildly inconsistent to my eyes.
I am not as big on him needing to open his scoring account. He does a lot of things amazingly well for such a young lad and he just needs to continue to develop. Ngolo never scored lots of goals and he has managed to become a pretty fair footballer. Not to make any comparisons other than the fact that scoring is not the only way for a midfielder to become valuable to his team.
He leads the regulars in SoT% (71.4). Pulisic (62.5) is next. RLC (25) and Reijndeers (14.3) are well off the pace. Eventually Musah will get some past the keeper and woodwork. RLC doesn't play defense and can't pass longer than about 15 yards. Reijnders couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with his shot from a yard away.
RLC definitely doesn't play a defensive position... so I assume you meant that a significant portion of his value comes from the D he brings in the midfield. I guess I would agree with that. Although I admired his O qualities early in his Chelsea career. AAR, one wonders if RLC has some Yank blood in him because injuries have certainly curtailed his development. He may have been fit enough to play recently, but I am not seeing the physical explosiveness that I saw when he was younger. I am going to be a bit more patient because sometimes it takes guys a lot longer to go from "ready to play" to "playing at their best".
Take a look at this and tell me RLC plays much in the way of defense: https://fbref.com/en/players/e97fd090/Ruben-Loftus-Cheek He lags well behind most Milan players in nearly every defensive stat this season.
Rolling on, per SempreMilan … “Instead of opting for the 4-2-3-1, Pioli is due to revert to a 4-3-3 formation. As such, Yunus Musah will likely act as the deepest of the three, giving Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Tijjani Reijnders slightly more advanced roles and a bit more freedom to attack.” Probable Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Hernandez, Florenzi; Loftus-Cheek, Musah, Reijnders; Chukwueze, Giroud, Pulisic.
Musah didn’t score or assist but he was playing more advanced last weekend and had several great moves.
Pulisic and Musah start vs Newcastle. Win puts them in Europa League at least; win plus Dortmund win over PSG keeps them in Champions League. And Leao is back.
I guess this guy doesn't get a lot of attention because his game is so unspectacular? He is a really solid player and most of what he does is spot on. He is just good enough that he can do what is required, and he works his tail off. He seems to just keep on doing his job, and pops up pretty regular right where you needed a capable somebody to be. This guy might end up being pretty good at this game of football.
In McKennie and Musah, we have two of the world’s most versatile players. Neither will be world class at any position, but all a manager has to do is plug them in and press play.
“Pioli will have to do without the likes of Davide Calabria and Yunus Musah tomorrow, with the former serving a suspension and the latter suffering from muscle fatigue.” I haven’t seen anything more specific.
Pretty reasonable he sits the odd game out. He's covered a lot of ground and played a lot of minutes recently
Yeah, he was due a rest. Kind of his turn to rotate. Wild if you think about it, he is sitting out because he has played too many minutes.